Guidance on the Implementation of the March 2, 1999 Court Decision

On March 2, 1999, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a decision on EPA's third set of transportation conformity amendments in response to a case brought by the Environmental Defense Fund. The DOT's January 2, 2002 Guidance (Released in a Federal Register Notice on February 7, 2002), together with EPA's May 14, 1999 Guidance, provided for an interim process to implement this decision until EPA issued revised conformity regulations on July 1, 2004, titled, "Transportation Conformity Amendments for the New 8-Hour Ozone and PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards and Miscellaneous Revisions for Existing Areas; Transportation Conformity Rule Amendments: Response to Court Decision and Additional Rule Changes; Final Rule ." Although the conformity rule incorporated all the guidance, EPA stated in the final rule that the guidance implementing the court decision continued to apply, except where aspects of the guidance documents were specifically addressed in the conformity rule, then the federal conformity rule applies.